Defending champions GT-Worx took home the top honours after a gruelling 24 hours of racing in the second running of CAR Magazine’s Virtual Le Mans Challenge at the weekend.
At 13h00 on Saturday June 14, the teams were instructed to sell their existing BMW LMRs on Gran Turismo 4 and purchase a standard car from the dealership, change the oil and tune the settings under the watchful eye of Deputy Ed Hannes Oosthuizen. Any modifications that enhanced the 6,0-litre V12 engine’s maximum outputs of 430 kW and 670 N.m of torque were banned, but teams were allowed to tweak the suspension, brakes, aerodynamics, transmissions and LSD settings – in fact anything that wouldn’t allow for an unfair power advantage.
The teams then went through a practice session and fettled with the settings on their racecars for the last time approximately 30 minutes before racing commenced.
It may not have started in sync with the actual event in France, but racing soon got under way when Associate Ed Sudhir Matai counted the drivers down at 15h46 . It was pretty tight after the first few hours, but after each of the six team’s three drivers had completed a stint, GT Worx (Ian Kolbe, John Cowley, Junaid Allie) and Los Tres Amigos (Ernest Page, Nezaam Cariem, Braam Peens) were leading by three laps, while CAR Magazine (Hannes Oosthuizen, Duwyne Aspeling, Kyle Kock) held third – precious seconds ahead GT Graphics (Garrin Tuck, Phillipe Fowler, Dylan Somerville). Lite-Speed (Fadl Gierdien, Thabied Mathews, Reza Mathews) and FFR Racing (Feerhan Fredericks, Faiek Fredricks, Rafeeq Koopman) brought up the rear.
Strategy became paramount for success in the early hours of Sunday morning. Just after 2 am and 10 hours of racing, Los Tres (171 laps) had emerged as potential winners while GT Worx (170 laps) appeared to be unable to answer the assault of the former, who’s lead had grown to over a lap and a half. CAR Magazine (166 laps) struggled with their BMW’s setup, but remained a lap ahead of GT Graphics (165) – who seemed to be reducing that lead with every lap.
Two hours later, Junaid Allie had set the fastest time of the event (3’17.685) after GT Worx had changed their tyre and fuel strategy – and managed to close in on Los Tres Amigos. One of the red-eyed bystanders, watching this dice for glory with interest, mused that Allie’s consistency and speed was due to his apparent disinterest in the brake pedal – indeed it seemed like he used the throttle and wheel alone for the all but the chicanes and Mulsanne corner on the Sarthe. This feat was soon overshadowed by Ernest Page, who bit back with lightning-quick 3’17.078. Both teams had to pit after 4 or 5 laps due to their light fuel loads and the wear their tyres endured.
After 13 hours of racing GT Worx and Los Tres Amigos were nearly dead-even (221 laps) – the latter just six seconds behind. CAR (216 laps) maintained that one lap lead over GT Graphics (215 laps), while Lite-Speed had clocked up 202 laps, 12 ahead of stragglers FFR Racing. Just under 14 hours, Tres Amigos had snatched back the lead, while Feerhan Fredericks clocked 200 laps for FFR.
Ten in the morning and 18 hours of racing had gone by. The tension was evident by team members of the top four (GT Worx and Los Tres Amigos in a battle for first on 304 laps, CAR Magazine and GT Graphics dicing for third with 296 laps) checking the rival team’s lap times and pitstops for consistency or any change in strategy for the final three stints. By then Lite-Speed (278 laps) and FFR Racing (264 laps) had absolutely no chance of a podium finish.
In the end, GT-Worx managed 405 laps, one ahead of second-placed Los Tres Amigos, while CAR Magazine came in third (394 laps), a lap ahead of GT Graphics. Lite-Speed completed 372 laps and FFR were 53 laps behind the leaders. For their efforts, each member of GT-Worx won a Sony PSP, BMW M3 jackets, a 1/10 scale remote-controlled car from Maisto and BMW umbrellas.
